Apparatus for straightening and delivering paper sheets with moist paste therebetween



A ml 28, 1959 G. L. ROBERTSON 2,884,245

APPARATUS FOR STRAIGHTENING AND DELIVERING PAPER SHEETS WITH MOIST PASTE! THEREBETWEEN Filed Aug. 1, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR George Lym qn Kobertson 5, ATTORNEY ROBERTSON APPARATUS FOR STRAIGHTENING AND DELIVERING PAPER April 28, 1959 G. L.

SHEETS WITH MOIST PASTE THEREBETWEEN Filed Aug. 1, 1955 I 2 Sheets- Sheet 2 b ATTORNEY INVENTOR G 60 rge Lyman foberl'son United States Patent APPARATUS FOR STRAIGHTENING AND DELIV- ERING PAPER SHEETS WITH MOIST PASTE THEREBETWEEN George L. Robertson,.Teaneck, NJ assignor to Robertson Brothers, Inc., New York,-N.Y.,, a corporation of New York Application August 1, 1955, Serial No. 525,494

3 Claims. (Cl. 271-87) This invention relates to mechanism for use in connection with bookbinding and other machines for receiving, straightening, conveying and delivering folded or unfolded sheets, and such mechanism is particularly adapted for use in conjunction with, or as part of; machines of the type in which unfolded sheets are pasted together in pairs with a strip of paste located at orclose to one edge of each sheet;

In pasting or so-called tipping machines of this type, sheets are horizontally conveyed successively in spaced relation to each other along an inclined or other surface while a strip of paste is applied thereto by a rotary applicator, after which unpasted' sheets are applied to the said pasted strip and the pairs of sheets with the paste therebetween are received and delivered by means of a pair of feed rolls one or both of which may be circumferentially grooved to avoid exerting unnecessary pressure upon the strip of paste, the purpose of the groove or grooves being to avoid the possibility of the paste being caused to squirt from between the sheet edges. With the delivery of sheets pasted together in this manner, it may be possible for the sheets to move out of accurate register with each other while the paste is still moist, and one object of the present invention is to insure against the possibility of such relative movement of the pasted sheets as they are delivered from a pasting or tipping machine.

In accordance with the present invention, the pasted sheets are conveyed from the machine by the said rolls and are received by a reciprocating member that en gages the edges of each pair of sheets adjacent to the strip of paste and thrusts the sheets forwardly upon a conveyor band, the said member having one forward movement for each pair of sheets and the movement of said member and of the band being timed in such relation to each other that the pairs of sheets are conveyed on the band in overlapping or shingled form. While the paste between the sheets is still moist, the adjacent sheet edges are struck by the said reciprocating member and any slight loss of alignment of said edges is thus rectified, and the overlapping sheets are conveyed to a final delivery point with the sheets in accurate register during the drying or setting of the paste.

Another object of the present invention is to provide improved means whereby step-by-step motion is imparted to the band conveying the overlapping pairs of sheets in proper timed relation to the movement of the reciprocating member that engages the edges of the pairs of sheets.

Still another object of the invention is to provide spring cushioning means for the reciprocating member to insure against the possibility of damage to the sheet edges by contact of the reciprocating member with such edges.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear more fully from the following description, especially when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which form a part thereof.

In the drawings:

2,884,245 Patented Apr. 28, 1959 lCC Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing two sheets with a strip of paste near one edge;v

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the improved sheet receiving.

in Fig. 3 the sheet a is shown in the angular position in. which it is preferably fed to the mechanism from a so called tipping machine in which certain edges of the sheets 10 and 11 have been attached to each other by the paste strips 12.

The improved mechanism has a horizontally disposed operating shaft 14 (Figs. 2 and 3) having a crank pin 15 connected to one end of a connecting rod 16, the opposite end of which is jointed to a rocker arm 17 mounted on a shaft 18. The arm 17 carries a pair of spring pawls 19 adapted to engage a ratchet wheel 20 loosely mounted on the shaft 18 and attached to a gear wheel 21 which meshes with and imparts step-by-step angular motion to a gear Wheel 22 attached to a shaft 23 which also serves as a support for a roller 24 supporting an endless conveyor band 25. At the opposite end of the conveyor 25 a similar roller 26 serves as its support, and the roller 26 is provided with suitable adjusting means 27 for the regulation of the tension of the conveyor band.

The lower end of the rocker arm 17 is connected by means of a link 28 with the lower end of an arm 29 the upper end of which is secured to a rocking shaft 30 mounted between supporting brackets 37. Secured to the rocking shaft 30 are two arms 31 the free ends of which are jointed to one end of a link device 32, the opposite end of which is jointed to a bracket 33 mounted on a Vertical flange plate 35 on a horizontal cross-plate 34. The extremities of the horizontal plate 34 are arranged beneath guide edges 36 formed on said brackets 37 which are secured to the frame 38 of the conveyor band, and this frame is formed with a smooth upper surface 3% serving as a support for the upper strand of the conveyor band 25.

In operation, the flange plate 35 of the reciprocating member engages the edge of the sheet a adjacent to the moist paste. During the backward movement of the reciprocating parts 34, 35 (to the left in Figs. 2 and 3) due to the counter-clockwise movement of the rocking arm 17, the sheet conveying portion of the band 25 is advanced to the right, and when the arm 17 is then moved in a clockwise direction the parts 34, 35 are advanced while the sheets already deposited on the conveyor band in shingled or stepped form remain stationary and the next sheet a is effectively straightened and accurately deposited upon the neXt sheet in advance thereof on the conveyor.

As shown in the detail view Fig. 5, the arm 17 is provided with a pair of pawls 19 arranged with one of them in advance of the other at a distance equal to approximately one half a tooth of the ratchet 20.

Referring to Fig. 6, the lower end of the arm 17 may be provided with a pivoted or swivel socket member 39' for the passage of the end of the connecting link 28, and spring means 38' are interposed between the pivot 39' and collars 40 adjustably mounted on the link 28 so as to provide a cushioning effect and to prevent damage to the edge of the sheet a by the plate 35 under high-speed operation.

While one embodiment of the invention has been described herein, it is to be understood that it is not intended as a limitation except within the scope of the claims hereto or hereinafter appended.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for the straightening and delivering of paper sheets having strips of moist paste between their edges, comprising an endless conveyor band for conveying the sheets with the moist paste strips at their trailing edges, a horizontal crossplate extending to the side edges of the conveyor band at the sheet receiving end thereof and arranged above and in close proximity to the sheet receiving surface of the said conveyor band, a supporting frame for the said band, guide brackets carried by said frame and serving to guide the end parts of said crossplate for horizontal movement of the crossplate over the surface of the :conveyor band, a vertical flange extending upwardly from one edge of the crossplate and having a length at least equal to the width of the pasted sheets, means for conveying the sheets to the crossplate with the sheets angularly disposed with respect to a horizontal plane while their lower edges move in a straight line in a direction parallel to the length of said crossplate and perpendicularly to the direction of movement of said conveyor band and with the strips of still moist paste located adjacent to the horizontal lower edges of the angularly disposed sheets, and means for imparting stepby-step movements to the conveyor band and for imparting reciprocating movement to the said crossplate and flange in timed relation to each other and in which the timing of the operation is such that the pasted sheets are delivered to the conveyor band by the movement of the flange while the conveyor band is at rest between its stepby-step movements, so that the pasted sheets are received by the crossplate and are straightened with respect to each other to ensure accurate register and the straightened sheets are advanced upon the surface of the conveyor band by engagement of the said trailing edges with the vertical surface of the reciprocating flange.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, in which the said means for imparting step-by-step movement to the conveyor band and reciprocating movement to the crossplate and its flange includes an operating shaft carrying a crank pin, and rocker arms actuated by the crank pin and serving to transmit movement to the conveyor band and to the crossplate.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1, comprising a spring cushion device mounted in the said means for imparting reciprocating movement to the crossplate and its flange to prevent possible damage to the trailing edges of the sheets by cushioning the contact of said flange with the said trailing edges.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,002,934 Sebba Sept. 12, 1911 1,423,647 Christensen July 25, 1922 2,161,712 Krell June 6, 1939 2,221,500 Upham Nov. 12, 1940 

